The savoury, floral edge of Cabernet on gravel is fully on display, and it needs time in the glass to soften and unroll. After a few minutes, the smoky side comes out, and the lean but concentrated berry fruit, although...

A Duhart that was particularly subdued when young, it is continuing to develop and will be even better in two or three years. Plenty of juice, dark fruits and firm tannins. It's a wine with so much freshness that you get...

(WE93-95 points) A firm and tannic wine, it has the weight to support its tannins. It's balanced, solid and dense, with a powerful shot of black fruits.

This wine is based on tannins yet it also has weight and a complex fruit structure. Its power lies in the density of its texture.

A great success for the vintage, this wine is firmly structured and expressive, bringing out a dark structure, ripe tannins and swathes of black fruits. Further generosity will develop as the wine matures. Drink from...

Another excellent to outstanding effort from the Nony family, the 2011 Grand-Mayne offers up beautifully sweet raspberry and blueberry fruit intermixed with crushed rock-like notes as well as a jammy character (unusual in...

(94-96). Barrel sample. Showing a judicious blend of new wood and ripe fruit, this is a wine that has a creamed-apple texture. It's full of bright grapefruit, sweet apple and green plum flavors.

This rich red is suave and ripe, laced with black cherry, black currant and oak spice flavors. Balanced and supple, with complexity and a lingering aftertaste of sweet fruit, mineral and spice. Best from 2016 through...

(WE94-96 points) Big and powerful this is a wine that is supported by dense tannins. The feeling is dry and firm with a brooding black-currant character.

(WE93-95 points) A firm and tannic wine, it has the weight to support its tannins. It's balanced, solid and dense, with a powerful shot of black fruits.

Delivers a solid, racy beam of raspberry coulis, black currant paste and blackberry fruit, underscored by a racy graphite spine. Flashes of fruitcake and tar show on the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from...

A delicious wine that stands out from many in the vintage. A ton of personality, with a sappy, raspberry, autumnal berry fruit as it opens and travels through the palate, with rose petals on the edge that give a beautiful...

A delicious wine that stands out from many in the vintage. A ton of personality, with a sappy, raspberry, autumnal berry fruit as it opens and travels through the palate, with rose petals on the edge that give a beautiful...

This is the first vintage of Jacques Thienpont's new wine, over the border in St-Émilion. Eight hectares of 30-year-old vines, harvested three weeks later than at Le Pin. 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc. Spicy, ripe and...

This is the first vintage of Jacques Thienpont's new wine, over the border in St-Émilion. Eight hectares of 30-year-old vines, harvested three weeks later than at Le Pin. 80% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Franc. Spicy, ripe and...

A solidly structured wine, it is both elegant and intensely powerful. It is disclosing its fruitiness slowly, at the moment dense and concentrated. A restrained edge provides complexity and balance. It will need aging, so...

A mature Champagne from a great vintage year, this is concentrated. With toast over the white fruits and with minerality still very present, the wine is taut, textured, vibrant and ready to drink. ROGER VOSS

Inky damson in colour, with tobacco, liquorice and dark chocolate scents, this remains powerful, with a mouthwatering saline finish. It doesn't feel anywhere near ready to open up yet. Impressive in a year that many...

A totem of the region, this is a stunning recioto born of six-months appassimento and a decade in barrel. Riffs on Chinotto, alpine spruce, bitter cherry, clove, mahogany and walnut husk, with a waft of something more...

Wow. Wonderfully aromatic nose of currants, blackberries and lilacs. Full body but refined and beautiful. The quality of the tannins is exception. So fine. Lovely austerity and tension on the finish. Better in 2016.

(WE94-96 points) An impressively silky wine. Dry yet intensely fruity the palate shows big fruit smooth tannins and a perfumed character. - R.V.

Larmandier-Bernier's 2011 Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Terre de Vertus ler Cru is as good a wine from this challenging vintage as readers are likely to find. Deep, powerful and vinous, the 2011 offers terrific persistence...

(90-93 points) This is solid, with a core of black currant, crushed plum and fig notes laced judiciously with sweet toast and graphite notes. Nice length.

The 2011 Jadot Clos Vougeot is absolutely stellar. The very deep and vibrant nose wafts from the glass in a blaze of red and black cherries, venison, espresso, bonfires, beautifully complex minerality, herb tones and a...

95-97. Barrel sample. This wine is rich with flavors of tropical fruit and citrus, with judicious wood aging and fine concentration. ROGER VOSS

A bit woodsy in feel now, with a youthfully raw edge, as singed sandalwood and alder notes liberally frame the core of dark cherry, plum and black currant fruit. This has length and drive, with a smoldering feel echoing...

The 2011 Marguet “Sapience” is a brilliant young wine that completely transcends the general quality of the vintage, as this was one of the more difficult growing seasons in recent Champagne history. But, no matter for...

Brings together the florality of Armailhac and the dense fruit of Clerc Milon, all with the volume turned up. Clear concentration and structure here, powerful Pauillac tannins and a juicy finish - easily one of the wines...